Co-founded by Nobel Prize winner Carolyn Bertozzi, Firefly’s venture funding is backed by Eli Lilly and Versant Ventures, among others, to support its novel platform for merging antibody-drug conjugates with protein degraders.
Pictured: 3D rendering of Antibody Drug Conjugate molecules, with cytotoxic payload/iStock, Marcin Klapczynski
California-based startup Firefly Bio announced Thursday its debut on the biotech scene with a Series A funding round of $94 million to support its novel platform for treating cancer by merging antibody-drug conjugates with protein degraders.
Versant Ventures and MPM BioImpact led Firefly’s Series A along with Decheng Capital and a contribution from Eli Lilly. According to Firefly, its degrader antibody conjugates (DACs) leverage both antibody- drug conjugates (ADCs) and protein degraders. By combining the two into one platform, the company contends that it can negate the limitations of each treatment.
Firefly said while ADCs can target cells, they have a limited therapeutic index due to their cytotoxic payloads and cannot go after specific intracellular proteins. The company notes that protein degraders, on the other hand, are highly catalytic and have intracellular selectivity struggling with bioavailability and lacking the ability for cell-specific targeting.
By combining the two, Firefly hopes to create new therapeutics to drug intracellular biological targets impeded by therapeutic index issues when delivered. Specifically, the biotech’s platform uses catalytic protein degraders as the payloads of ADCs.
Combining this action with its proprietary tech, will result in lower doses, according to the company. Firefly said preclinical studies in solid and liquid tumors have led to significant reductions in tumor volume at “meager” dosage amounts.
“DACs are a new modality for cancer,” Firefly CEO Scott Hirsch said in a statement. “They give us the ability to hit biologically validated targets with minimal collateral damage. Our platform enables DACs at scale and vastly expands the number of payloads for ADCs.”
Carolyn Bertozzi, a 2022 Nobel Prize winner co-founded the company with John Flygare, who led ADC teams at Merck and Genentech, as well as Bernhard Geierstanger, who led ADC efforts at Novartis and Merck. Hirsch was previously the COO at Allakos and has also managed early- and late-stage ADC programs.
Firefly’s Series A funding comes as significant capital continues to be invested in the ADC space. On Wednesday, ADC-centered biotech ProfoundBio announced that it had closed an oversubscribed $112 million Series B to help advance its four ADCs. Last month, OnCusp Therapeutics raised $100 million in a Series A round for its ADC candidate.
Tyler Patchen is a staff writer at BioSpace. You can reach him at tyler.patchen@biospace.com. Follow him on LinkedIn.
